70 New Reasons to Live Green

Way to go, readers: Greening up isn’t a trend you’ve loved and left, like pointy-toed shoes and shaggy haircuts. You’re living it. You reuse, you recycle, you even precycle (that means avoiding wasteful packaging to begin with). You care.

Those efforts are paying off. In 2007 Americans prevented 40 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions (the crap largely responsible for global warming) by doing everything from switching to Energy Star appliances to unplugging cell phone chargers. In 2008, you drove 3.5 percent less; since the average car spews more than 11,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, that should also help lower air pollution.

Still, there’s a lot of greening to be done. Most objective researchers agree that pollution remains a massive problem, and easy-access clean water a distant hope for much of our planet. Last year was one of the hottest on record since 1880. Just ask our friend the polar bear…if you can find one. In May it made the endangered species list; the ice floes the animals call home have been melting and may be gone by 2012.

The overheated atmosphere is taking a toll on humans as well. Recently, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the International Rescue Committee that global warming and other environmental issues have displaced seven times more people than war has. “Climate change encompasses everything from water quality to land management to the health of our communities,” Carol Browner, the new assistant to the President for energy and climate change, tells Glamour. “It’s unlike any environmental challenge we’ve ever faced before.” In the 70 years Glamour’s been around, we’ve made major inroads with sexism and racism. Now we’ll be fighting for environmentalism, too, over the next 70 years and beyond.

Our country’s up to that task. In the past year, the Natural Resources Defense Council launched a campaign to clean up rivers and beaches and boost local water supplies, in part by repurposing rainwater. Big-box stores are taking giant steps to lower their carbon footprint. Wal-Mart, for one, is no longer letting trucks idle and has begun filling its shelves with eco-friendly products. There’s hopeful news from Washington, too: Browner and the rest of President Obama’s green team have promised that in three years 10 percent of our electricity will come from renewable resources. They’ve also vowed to put a million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015 and to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 percent over four decades.

What else can you do this year? Keep up the great green work—and try one new thing, or two or three (find dozens of easy ideas at glamour.com). Every little bit helps. Talk to others about what you’re doing; Mother Earth needs as many friends as possible. To inspire you even more, take a look at our 70 eco go-getters. They’re grassroots activists, CEOs and celebs, ages 17 to 66. Some run big-gun groups; others are building greener lipsticks and totes. But they’ve all recognized the same thing: “Future generations depend on our vigilance. We must care,” says Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency. “Time and again, we’ve faced the frustrations of righting past wrongs.” So here’s to the environment—and greener years ahead. —Virginia Sole-Smith